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Final Mission (episode)
On his way to Starfleet Academy, Wesley Crusher must care for an injured Captain Picard after their shuttle crashes on a desert moon. Summary Wesley Crusher comes running onto the bridge after Captain Picard called him ten minutes previously. Picard chastises the young man, then, smiling, tells the young ensign that a position has opened in this year's class at Starfleet Academy and that Wesley has been granted the posting. He would be leaving in two weeks, and will have to work hard to catch up with his classmates. In the interim, Picard is to arbitrate a mining dispute on Pentarus V, and he opts to bring Wesley along to observe. The ''Enterprise'' rendezvouses with Captain Dirgo's shuttle, and Picard and Wesley depart with Dirgo to Pentarus III. Shortly after their departure, the Enterprise receives a distress signal from a Gamelan V – they are receiving critical levels of radiation from a "space barge" which is entering their atmosphere. The Enterprise speeds off under Riker's command to assist. Meanwhile, Dirgo's shuttle suffers a mishap, and has to crash land on Lambda Paz, a desert moon of Pentarus III. Since Dirgo's shuttle had no room for emergency supplies or potable water, Picard takes charge of the party and makes plans for their survival until a rescue party can find them. After leaving a marker by the shuttle, the three survivors begin a trek to a nearby mountain range in search of shelter from the scorching sunlight. During their hike, Wesley notes some strange energy readings in the direction of their travel. Suffering from dehydration and fatigue, they find a cave with an increased level of the energy readings, and investigating, the trio find a strange fountain of water in it. The fountain is protected by a force field, and attempts by Dirgo to fire at the field with his phaser unleashes a sentry energy weapon which knocks the weapon from his hand and encases it in a fibrous shell. In the commotion, a landslide begins over Wesley, but Picard pushes him out of the way, suffering a broken leg, fractured arm, and head wound in the process. Weakened, Picard tells Wesley that he has to take charge, and deter Dirgo from any further rash attempts to breach the force field. But clearly, their need for water is greater than ever. Alas, Dirgo is too impetuous, and convinces Wesley to make another attempt to breach the force field. This attempt results in Dirgo being encased in the shell, and apparently dying. Wesley struggles to figure out a way to disable the force field, while keeping Picard conscious and comfortable. During some tense and emotional exchanges, Picard tells the boy that he envies him, "your adventures are just beginning." He urges Wesley to seek out Boothby, the "wisest man at the Academy." Wesley asks what he teaches, to which Picard answers, "He's the groundskeeper." Wesley confesses that everything he has done to succeed on the Enterprise has been to make Picard proud of him. In the Gamelan system, the Enterprise manages to slingshot the leaking barge directly into Gamelan's sun by tractoring it through an asteroid belt, narrowly avoiding lethal radiation exposure to the crew in the process. They rush back to the Pentarus system to participate in the search for the now overdue shuttle. They begin with the class M moons of Pentarus III, which have not yet been searched. Nenebek]] On the moon, Wesley jury rigs his combadge and tricorder to interfere and possibly disable the energy sentry. Attempting this, he succeeds and disables the force field around the fountain. He brings water to Picard in one of the shuttle's survival kit cases, and regaining some strength and composure, Picard assures Wesley that he has always been proud of the boy. Wesley is woken some time later by his mother, who informs him that Picard is all right and his vital signs are stabilized. As Picard is carried out on a stretcher, he grabs Wesley's hand and confesses, "You will be missed." Background Information * This episode was previously titled "Turnabout". * Wesley references his prior shuttle trip with Picard in . * This episode marks Wesley Crusher's final regular appearance on TNG. He later appeared in the episodes , , (in an alternate timeline) and . * Nick Tate later plays Liam Bilby in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode . * Before beginning their trek to the mountains, Dirgo distributes some phasers he scavenged from his damaged shuttle. The props used are Starfleet phaser pistols circa 2285, from , which would make sense since Dirgo operated his shuttle with old and outdated equipment. * In the scene where Wesley first notices the strange energy reading, there are automobile tire tracks running across the desert. Video and DVD releases *Original UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, CIC Video): Volume 42, . *UK re-release (three-episode tapes, Paramount Home Entertainment): Volume 4.3, . *As part of the TNG Season 4 DVD collection. Links and References Guest Stars *Nick Tate as Dirgo *Kim Hamilton as Songi *Mary Kohnert as Tess Allenby *Tracee Lee Cocco as Jae (uncredited) *Michael Braveheart as Martinez (uncredited) References Alcohol; asteroid; Auprès de ma Blonde, Boothby; Captain; Celsius; Chairman; class M; construction module; deflector; dehydration; deuterium; dresci; duranium; ermanium; Federation Law; fission reactor; force field; frequency; fusion generator; Gamelan V; Gamelan sun; Gamelan system; garbage scow; guidance coupling; hertz; hyronalin; Lambda Paz; lava; magnetic field; maneuvering thruster; Medical Unit One; Meltasion Asteroid Belt; millirad; mining shuttle; Nenebek; Pentarus II; Pentarus III; Pentarus V; Pentarus station; Pentarus system; radiation; radiation exposure protocol; Regalian; replicator; salenite; selenium; sentry; shearing force; sonodanite; Starbase 515; Starfleet Academy; tricorder; ventilation system; volcano; water |next= }} Category:TNG episodes de:Die letzte Mission es:Final Mission nl:Final Mission